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The work-people meet them
A knowing Indian and a sly Kentuckian
A labouring party organised
Digging and washing for gold
The news spreads
People flock to the diggings
Arrival of Mormons
The gold found to be inexhaustible
Men of science as blind as the rest of
the world.

“I was sitting one afternoon,” said the
Captain, “just after my siesta, engaged, by-the-by,
in writing a letter to a relation of mine at Lucerne,
when I was interrupted by Mr. Marshall—­a
gentleman with whom I had frequent business transactions—­bursting
hurriedly into the room. From the unusual agitation
in his manner I imagined that something serious had
occurred, and, as we involuntarily do in this part
of the world, I at once glanced to see if my rifle
was in its proper place. You should know that
the mere appearance of Mr. Marshall at that moment
in the Fort was quite enough to surprise me, as he
had but two days before left the place to make some
alterations in a mill for sawing pine planks, which
he had just run up for me, some miles higher up the
Americanos. When he had recovered himself a little,
he told me that, however great my surprise might be
at his unexpected reappearance, it would be much greater
when I heard the intelligence he had come to bring
me. ‘Intelligence,’ he added, ’which,
if properly profited by, would put both of us in possession
of unheard-of wealth—­millions and millions
of dollars in fact.’ I frankly own, when
I heard this, that I thought something had touched
Marshall’s brain, when suddenly all my misgivings
were put an end to by his flinging on the table a handful
of scales of pure virgin gold. I was fairly thunderstruck,
and asked him to explain what all this meant, when
he went on to say, that, according to my instructions,
he had thrown, the mill-wheel out of gear, to let
the whole body of the water in the dam find a passage
through the tail-race, which was previously too narrow
to allow the water to run off in sufficient quantity,
whereby the wheel was prevented from efficiently performing
its work. By this alteration the narrow channel
was considerably enlarged, and a mass of sand and gravel
carried off by the force of the torrent. Early
in the morning after this took place, he (Mr. Marshall)
was walking along the left bank of the stream, when
he perceived something which he at first took for a
piece of opal—­a clear transparent stone
very common here—­glittering on one of the
spots laid bare by the sudden crumbling away of the
bank. He paid no attention to this; but while
he was giving directions to the workmen, having observed
several similar glittering fragments, his curiosity
was so far excited, that he stooped down and picked
one of them up. ’Do you know,’ said
Mr. Marshall to me, ’I positively debated within
myself two or three times whether I should take the
trouble to bend my back to pick up one of the pieces,
and had decided on not doing so, when, further on,
another glittering morsel caught my eye—­the